Enjoying A Visit From Our Sons And Picking Up My New Bike

Expecting to be leaving for the Outer Banks for almost two glorious weeks of vacation on Friday morning, I had front-loaded my week to free up time for packing and traveling later in the week. If you checked in on the news or any sort of social media this past week, I’m sure you were aware of a hurricane of massive proportions baring down on the eastern seaboard.

Early tracks suggested that the storm could be heading straight for North Carolina, specifically our little beach house on the Outer Banks. On Tuesday, weathermen predicted Hurricane Florence could make landfall as a cat 5, the strongest of the categories, and by now they were tracking it to hit just south of the Outer Banks. By Wednesday, the storm was heading straight toward Wilmington, south of our family’s home, but straight for a community where several of our friends have retired or purchased vacation homes. To say I was stressed would be an understatement.

I kept my stress in check (for the most part) and continued on with my daily activities. A major de-stressor was a visit from our oldest son Joseph who would be visiting for several days.

Once it appeared pretty obvious that we’d be spending our weekend at home and under extremely wet conditions (forecasts called for us to get 6-10 inches of rain in Northern Virginia), I decided to run on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday; opting not to run in the heavy rain the outer bands of a hurricane can bring. As the week progressed, the storm was downgraded repeatedly, but I stuck with my original plan. With my long run behind me, I was able to sleep in on Saturday morning and awoke to no rain. Sometimes the best laid plans work out completely differently than anticipated.

Back to my runs, on Tuesday and Wednesday I ran alone in the dark at 5 AM, but on Thursday, I met my friend Tracy for a slightly later run at 6:15. We had a great run and fun time catching up, but failed to take a picture.

On Tuesday our younger son Daniel and Pablo came to visit. It was nice having all our boys with us and we love that our boys now includes this handsome pup. I made a special dinner of grilled marinated steak tips, Key West chicken, asparagus, and Brussels sprouts; and we had a fantastic time just enjoying being together.

Finally on Wednesday I had a long enough hole in my schedule to drive down to Arlington to pick up my bike. It had been in for over a week, but with a trip out of town last weekend to visit my mom and a busy Monday and Tuesday, I hadn’t had time to pick it up. The wait was akin to a little kid waking up super early on Christmas morning, but being being told he couldn’t get up until 11 AM.

I walked into Bikenetic and immediately saw my Salsa Journeyman to my right with the other bikes on hold, and it was love at first sight! Brian got me set up and even took my picture before I left.

Once home, Joseph and I headed out for a ride together. We rode by the park where I took some running pictures last week. I knew the park would be closed, but wanted to check out the progress on the bridge repairs (they’d just started work and have a long way to go).

When Bill got home he switched out my pedals from flat to clipless dual platform (affiliate link). Clipping in was easy to learn and I did great until about two seconds after I asked Bill how long he thought it would be until I had my first accident due to forgetting to unclip. I rode into our garage thinking I’d unclip as I stopped, but panicked and couldn’t get either shoe to unclip. I sort of fell over sideways on the concrete floor in what seemed like slow motion. I landed on Bill’s bike which was leaning against the wall and I got scraps and bruises on my elbow and above my knee. I also learned a valuable lesson: unclip as I’m riding down the street in case I can’t unclip and need a little more time to do it.

On Thursday afternoon I had to miss a fun ride with these two because I had pre-vacation spa appointments on my calendar – mani/pedi, eyebrows, etc. Had I been able to join them, we’d have had a Salsa trio!

I worked on Friday after it was clear that we wouldn’t be going anywhere near the beach and I’d rescheduled my canceled appointments. Friday after work we enjoyed drinks, but with a completely different backdrop than planned – grass and a creek rather than sand and the ocean…

It appears that little damage was done to the Outer Banks north of Kitty Hawk and we’re hoping to head down in a few days, but not for as long as originally planned. Even though the storm was downgraded to a cat 1 by the time it hit land, it’s slow moving and dumping massive amounts of rain on the Carolinas. Please pray for those who weren’t so lucky and have been in the storm’s path…

In case you skipped checking in on my blog this past week, here’s what you missed…

Tuesday – I know this was promised last week, but I didn’t take the time as planned to write about our very own Trader Joe’s opening up in our community (I was too busy enjoying Joseph’s visit). I promise that I wrote it yesterday and it’s scheduled to post on Tuesday.

In addition to the runs I mentioned above, here’s a complete run-down of my workouts from this past week (completed mostly in our home gym)…

Questions:

Do you rearrange your runs based on weather forecasts?

Have you ever had to cancel a vacation due to a weather event totally out of your control?

Did you race this weekend?

And that’s a wrap… Have a great week!

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links which means if you click on the blue product link and then make a purchase, I will receive a commission for referring you. You will pay no more or less for the product; however, Amazon will show their gratitude for my referral by paying me.

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I’m linking up with Holly at HoHo Runs and Wendy from Taking The Long Way Home for their Weekly Wrap. Be sure to check out not only the hosts’ posts, but the other great bloggers joining in on the fun!

Dad was Civil War studier, especially in his retirement. Battlefields, college visits (everything I looked at save for the one I actually went to was in VA/NC/DC) and beach. Was a good series of summers.

Yes, adjusting to clip in pedals is a challenge! I still unclip way before I need to so that I can put my foot down. But stuff happens–my bike crash earlier this year was a total shocker and there was not time to unclip. I just went down with the bike.

Today’s ride went well and I just made sure to unclip in plenty of time before each stop. The challenge is to always remember that I’m clipped in. And yeah, I was wondering about an unexpected crash and whether or not the shoes would unclip as you fall. When falling while snow skiing sometimes the ski boots pop free of the binding on the skis and sometimes they don’t – I know from lots of experience. 😉

Love your new bike! Sounds like you’re having fun with it. Glad you avoided the brunt of the storm. I often shuffle workouts based on the weather forecast. And yes! I raced this weekend and am heading to Vancouver for Sea Wheeze next weekend.

So glad you stayed safe and sounds like your home did too! It was a crazy storm and, of course, still continuing for so many others! I love that you were finally able to pick up your new bike (and I know that feeling!) and spend some time with your sons. Good luck getting down to your place…hoping you find it just how you left it!

Whew, so glad your house is okay! Also lovely to have a visit with your son and that puppy! He was doing some serious posing there. 🙂

I’ve yet to try clips … I’m too nervous about forgetting to unclip! My husband and I mostly do trails, (we did the GAP round trip in July,) so I’m okay with my safe no-clip pedals for now. One day I have to try them, though!

I hope you’ll find everything in order when you get to your beach house! The new bike looks great. Everyone forgets to unclip. So, at least you have that first awkward fall over with already. I’m pretty good with planned stops as I unclip in advance. But…those that require fast reaction? Not so much. Thanks for linking!

I’m Debbie (or Deb), a lover of family, life, and all things running; and I aspire to share my love of fitness through Deb Runs. As a personal trainer and running coach, I enjoy helping others adopt a healthy lifestyle to improve the quality of their lives.

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